Hi! This is my first season camping in the UK so I have a few questions about using my stove here. I have a Camp Chef Everest stove that I've brought from the US. Camp Chef Everest
I also have this Coleman adapter hose so the stove can be fitted to a bulk propane tank: Coleman adapter hose
Is it possible to run this stove with butane? I've been offered a couple of full tanks of butane (as well as a heater that uses bulk butane tanks)for free from the in laws and would like to take them up on their offer if possible. My stove comes with a propane regulator attachment so I'm confused about how to make the switch.
There's also a possibility we'll camp in France and Germany next year. Is it possible to adapt the stove to use Campingaz or are we better off stocking up on propane (or butane) before we go?
We won't be doing any winter camping, but we do intend to camp the second week of April during the school holidays. Do you think it'll be too cold still for butane?
------------- Thank you Donnod123
------------
Coleman Evolva (might have more than one shhhh)
And now a VW T25 high top.
Tilley Titan
Tilley Trio
Cobb BBQ
It looks like the fitting you have is a direct bottle pressure fitting, common in the USA so if you use a regulator it will cut the pressure and most likely not work. I would just stick to the kit you have.
------------- Gary Cross - The masked camping guru.
Any camping stove can run on either butane or propane so that is not going to be a problem. From your link, read the instruction manual here. It shows a gas bottle & regulator being connected to stove no different from a UK gas bottle & regulator such as Campingaz or Calor.
From that one can conclude that the stove will work ok with UK gas bottle/regulator provided delivered gas pressure is similar to US regulator. Unfortunately there is no mention of gas pressure. I would suggest you try it out in the open. Connect up to Campingaz bottle & regulator & give it a go. UK butane regulator pressure is 28m/b & propane regulator pressure is 37m/b. Do you know pressure of US regulator?
To use your Coleman hose you will have to cut off end & attach rubber hose to Campingaz regulator with jubilee clip which is normal UK method. Use soapy water to get hose end onto regulator nipple.
Providing it is not freezing you should be ok with butane in April but if stove will run on UK butane bottle then it will also run on UK propane bottle, ie Calor in red bottle with correct regulator.
I'm told the leaflet for the heater says butane only. I had hoped to avoid carrying two types of gas. Guess I'll have to deal with it or purchase a new heater that accepts propane.
I think you misunderstand. Any LPG appliance can use either butane or propane. You just use the correct regulator. The regulator is specific for the bottle, the wrong regulator cannot be fitted, the fittings are different. Any UK supplied LPG appliance that uses separate exchangeable gas bottles(tanks as you call them) will run on either butane or propane.
For UK camping in spring/summer season you should be ok with butane, it can fail to work just above freezing point(ie 0degC/32deg/F). What sort of heater do you have? Its usually free standing domestic LPG heaters(ie for home use not camping)that use 15kg butane bottles but these will run on 13kg propane if you change the regulator. Gas camping heaters usually use disposable cartridges.
If you have a small industrial LPG heater then that can run either butane or propane but it is more normal to use propane bottle for these in cold temperatures.
I've had a look at the manual and I've seen that page with the hose and regulator attached and it does indeed look like the same setup that's available here in the UK. The thing is, I think that page about LPG safety must be added to the manuals for all of their appliances because there isn't a hose like that available for my particular stove. My stove has the regulator already attached to it.
It's all making sense to me now. As Gary Cross mentioned, if I attach a butane regulator to the end of the Coleman hose, I'll end up with two regulators and so it's unlikely to work.
ETA: I guess this settles it - there's a Q&A on the website and someone asks if the stove can be run on butane and Camp Chef says it is propane only. Well spotted, Donnod123. I should've researched more carefully.
A lot of US and South African stoves only work from direct bottle pressure still and Ive seen many people come in who have cut the original end fittings of there pipe that came with the stove so they could use UK bottles and regs etc only to find they don't get a flame. Im no expert on foreign stoves but if your pipe fits a uk propane gas bottle then don't gamble and just use that.
------------- Gary Cross - The masked camping guru.
The Coleman hose you link to has no regulator only a connector at either end. As pointed out earlier if you want to connect to UK regulator & bottle, cut off connector at bottle end & attach rubber pipe direct to nipple on regulator & secure with jubilee clip.
The reason the US instructions state propane only is because I guess in the US, in common with France for example it is possible to connect propane regulator to butane bottle as fittings are common & the regulator supplied with stove is for propane. However with good old UK bottles this is not possible because fittings are always different to avoid mistakes.
As I have pointed out any LPG appliances will run equally well on propane or butane, all that is required is that gas is delivered at correct pressure & if correct regulator for bottle is used then ok.
As pointed out, connect it up as I have described & try it. Nothing is going to blow up & I'm guessing it will work just fine.
The instructions for your stove show a regulator on the US bottle, it may well work with both regulators. I had an Eriba caravan of German origin with internal regulator that worked ok with Campingaz907 bottle & regulator. Alternatively Remove complete fitting as you have pictured it from stove & you will find you can buy a brass nipple to screw in it's place. If you do this then You can buy normal UK gas hose & 2 jubilee clips from camping shop & attach UK gas bottle & regulator, the stove should then work.
Another possiblity is that the fitting on your Coleman hose looks like a pol connector which would screw straight into UK Calor propane bottle without a regulator, do you use pol connectors in the US?
As pointed out earlier the only way is to try it & see, the worst that will happen is that it might flare up so try well out in the open & stand back when you light it.
Also worth pointing out is that you can buy a 2 burner stove in the UK for £30 upwards so if can't get your US one to work you can do that so any gas bottles you do buy will still get used. If you are going camping in Europe for under a month then a small sized Calor bottle butane or propane will be more than enough so no point in getting a Campingaz907 bottle which costs much more to refill than Calor.
The Calor bottles to go for would be either 4.5kg butane or 3.9kg propane. As pointed out the Coleman fitting if pol it would go straight onto Calor propane bottle, so might be worth a try.
Yes, POL connectors are used in the US and it is my understanding that all I'd have to do to use propane is just screw the coleman hose directly onto the propane tank with no regulator. There's a picture I've found somewhere on this forum of someone doing just that with their Coleman Fold n Go stove.
If there is some sort of nipple attachment that can put on my stove in place of the regulator arm, that is definitely something I will look into. Great advice, Michell, thanks!
Your cheapest bet then could be to get a Calor propane bottle, these are coloured red & smallest 3.9kg size is what you want. If your Coleman fitting screws straight into bottle that should do the job. In the UK shops don't refill gas bottle while you wait, you take in empty bottle in & swap it for a full one paying only for the gas.
To get the bottle in the first place you either buy it from a supplier, cost £30, I think + the cost of the gas. The other way is to try to find bottle secondhand for a few £s, it don't matter what state it is in as long as it has Calor on it the Calor supplier will take it in exchange. It can be any size, butane(blue) or propane(red)& a Calor supplier should swap it for the size you want, ie 3.9kg propane.